


Too Young

by sunday_star



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, DCU, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Gen, Homelessness, James is 12, Sara is 6, They will meet a lot of people on the way, the kids are a far way from home
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 05:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12102033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunday_star/pseuds/sunday_star
Summary: Stuck in an alternate universe with no way of getting home, the two young children of Steve Rogers are forced to adabpt to survive. But when people start hunting them, the sibilings will have to turn to the world's heros in order to avoid capture by a strange enemy.





	Too Young

It was cold in the old warehouse. The walls leaked and the doors creaked, and a bitter wind drifted in through cracked windows.

Sara found herself in a huddled corner behind some boxes, trying her best to fight the cold. She was alone. 

James had told her to rest, but it was dark, and a childish fear kept sleep away. From the corner she could see out past the wooden boxes into the open store room. The ceiling rose high above her head and showed the night sky through an oddly placed skylight. The ground felt dirty and grimy to the touch. James had gotten a piece of cardboard to lay down on, but it did little to soften the hard ground.

The slightest sound sent icicles through her body, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

Sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, Sara huffed. James had left some time ago to see if he could scrounge any food for them, but right now all she wanted was her big brother. It felt like he had been gone forever and she was tired of waiting for him. Or maybe she was just plain tired. Sara tucked her head in her knees. Maybe James would come back faster if she closed her eyes.

Soon her muscles became sore from sitting the same way for too long. She wanted to move, but was too scared to leave the safety of their chosen hiding place, behind a stack of wooden boxes. James had always told her that things were less scary when you got know them. He told her that you just had to be brave enough to learn. James knew a lot, maybe if she got to know the old warehouse, it wouldn’t be scary? 

Sara stood up, slowly, as to not make a sound. Placing a hand on the wall of boxes, she peered around. Inside the warehouse, long shadows stretched across the floor, broken only by the city light that flowed through cracked windows.  
James told her to be brave, so she would be.

She shuffled forward keeping close to the wall, but away from the windows, just in case anyone decided to look through the glass. The sounds of the city flowed in from the cracks of the window. There was always a constant buzz, like a fly, but not as annoying as one.

Sara thought it was almost comforting. 

It reminded her of her old home in the city. Not this one, but one very far from here. It was warmer, and less dark. She remembered how her mother would sing her and James Russian lullabies before they went to sleep. How her dad would chase her around, snatching her up, and lifting her high in the sky. Most of all she remembered how happy everyone had been. 

But it was different now. It was just her and James now. 

Approaching the opposite end of the wall, Sara thought back to the warehouse.

The room did seem less big. After all it was not as large as her parents training room, where her dad would practice throwing his shield and her mom would work on her hand on hand skills. There was always an excitement in the pit of her stomach watching her parents work. She could still see them vividly. Like most of her other memories, they were etched into her head.

Sara turned her head to the wall. There was a poll or a pipe that ran up the wall. She followed it up with her eyes taking a step back to see all the way. The pipe reached all the way up to the ceiling where the wooden rafters that connected the two sides of the wall like bridges. She thought it would be fun to climb all the way to the top and jump on the rafters. Sara was a good climber. A really good one. She knew she could do it if she wanted. Plus she always felt safe at high heights.

But James would be back soon and he would be mad at her if she did something dangerous while he was gone.  
Moving past the pipe, Sara wandered along the short end of the wall. She sighed getting restless again. There was not much to do. And doing things kept her young mind off the fact that she was alone in a very scary and dark place.  
A flash of light brightened the windows on the wall across from her. There were car doors slamming, and deep voices shouting urgently at each other. Definitely not James. Sara takes it all back. Maybe being alone in the warehouse wasn’t so bad after all. 

She stood still for a second, praying that the voices would get back in their cars and leave, but they only grew louder as they drew near the outside of the warehouse. 

No. No. No! This place was supposed to be abandoned, that’s why she and James had settled here for the night. But then he had left to get some stuff and left her alone. Why did he have to leave her? 

Sara looked around, panicked and thought about dashing over to her original hiding spot by the boxes but decided against it. The boxes may hide her for some time but she would be cornered if the voices decided to check it.  
Then she remembered. The pipe, of course! She scrambled back over to where she had seen the seen the tall pipe disappear into the ceiling. She started pulling herself up the side of the wall, hands gripping the cold metal, feet hugging the sides of the pipe. Sorry James, but I have to.

It didn’t take her long to reach the top.

She hopped onto the closest rafter and crouched.  
Sara knew it was not normal for a girl her age to be able to do things like that. James would tell her that when he took her to the playground in the park. He always told her not to show off. Showing off would lead to being noticed and being noticed would lead to bad things.

She thought it was funny that she was showing off in order not to be noticed.  
Just then the door swung open and a group of people streamed in, no longer shouting at each other, rather one was softly giving directions to the others. She leaned forward as far as she dared. 

“… Mason saw the boy leaving the warehouse about a half an hour ago, so the girl must still be here.”  
Sara tried not to hitch her breath it struck her who they must be talking about. She thought she would fall off her perch she was so scared. She breathed though her nose trying to quiet her heart before the people below heard it.  
They had spread out checking every shadow. Her heart dropped as they searched behind the stack of crates where she had been staying. One of the men came out carrying her backpack holding it up for the leader- she had decided to call him Grumpy, because of the odd look on his face- to see. Grumpy grunted and beckoned the man- she had dubbed Swiper because that was her backpack- over to him. 

Sara knew she was too far to properly ease drop, so she jumped from beam to beam, as quickly and quietly as she dared. None of the bad guys below saw her.

Once she was in the middle of the room, above Grumpy she stopped. She could see the top of his head as he watched Swiper jog over to him gripping her bag. 

“We did not finder her,” Swiper said, “but she was most likely here.” He raised her backpack, Sara nearly blanched upon seeing he had opened her bag. In a fit of childish rage, she was extremely tempted to say “Swiper no swiping,” but she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep herself quiet.

“There are some child’s clothing and books in here.” 

Grumpy nodded and said, “The girl must still be here, Mason did not mention seeing anyone else leave the building.”  
One of the other men stepped forward- Hulk, because he had big muscles- “We’ve looked everywhere Emerson, she’s not here.”

Grump’s face became at least twenty times grumpier.

“Well. Look. Harder.” He turned back to Swiper, “The girl is small so she could be hiding anywhere. Leave no stone unturned.” Sara did not know what stones had to do with anything, there was no way she would fit under a stone, no matter how small she was. 

Grumpy was still barking orders at the others, so she tuned it out. Her initial plan, wait for them to give up finding her and leave, was probably not going to work. Eventually, one of them would think to look up. But even if they did spot her, they would probably not be able to climb up to get her. So what would she do? Just wait until James comes back? But what if he did not come back? Sara startled at her own thought. Hadn’t they said they had seen him leave the warehouse? What if they already got to him? 

She thought she was going to throw up. 

No, she couldn’t give up. She had to be brave. It was up to her to get herself out of this. 

But where would she go? There was no way she could climb down the pipe without them seeing her. She could climb down the stack of boxes where she had hide earlier. But the door was still on the other side of the warehouse, and she would have to sneak past the group to get there. Maybe if she make it to the skylight she had seen earlier.  
Making up her mind, Sara rose from her crouch and turned nearly slamming into a red chested figure. She couldn’t help it, she screamed.


End file.
